British Nobel Laureate Crucified for Sexism by Woman with Little Credibility

Article here. Excerpt:

'A British Nobel laureate, Sir Tim Hunt, 72, who won the Nobel Prize for his work on cell division, was forced out of honorary positions at University College London (UCL), the Royal Society, and the European Research Council (ERC) after a British academic named Connie St Louis, whose credibility is itself under fire, reported Hunt making sexist remarks in Seoul, South Korea.

The Daily Mail reported that Hunt was speaking to roughly a group of 100 science journalists, comprised primarily of women, when he said, according to Hunt, “Let me tell you about my trouble with girls. Three things happen when they are in the lab. You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticize them, they cry.”

St Louis posted the quote on Twitter, prompting a world-wide barrage of invective targeting Hunt and also provoking the subsequent actions by the academic societies. Hunt, who called Hunt a “sexist speaker,” said Hunt boasted that he was a “male chauvinist.” She said Hunt stated that single-sex labs were better than mixed ones, while saying of Hunt, “Really, does this Nobel laureate think we are still in Victorian times?”

Hunt, returning from Seoul, could only defend himself by voicemail to Radio 4’s Today program, offering an apology for the “very stupid” comment, adding that he was “really, really sorry” to have “caused offence.” His wife, Professor Mary Collins, also a well-known scientist, said that Hunt became depressed, recalling, “‘Tim sat on the sofa and started crying. Then I started crying. We just held on to each other.”

But then a backlash from famous scientists roared back, led by eight other Nobel Prize winners and some female academics. Sir Andre Geim, the 2010 Nobel Prize winner in Physics who developed graphene, the world’s thinnest material, which may utterly change the world, said Hunt was being “crucified” by ideological fanatics. Some of the scientists surmised Hunt had been joking. All of the scientists told the UCL, the Royal Society and the ERC to reinstate him.'